Brugmansia 2014

When is the best time to take cuttings?

 

Not sure but I took a sanguinea cutting by removing an offshoot at the base and sticking it in compost. I removed 40% of the lower leaves and it started to show new growth after 6-8 weeks in the greenhouse. This was in June, there are more suckers on the main stem now, so I am going to try another. Mine flowered in April after spending the winter in the greenhouse and was done by mid May. It has new buds now after being outside since mid April.

 

When I chop mine down in autumn, I use stems between 3/4" and 1" cut into 1' sections. Stick a bundle of them in a jug of water and they root very quickly. Can be left in (clean!) water all winter and then potted up in Spring, to save space.

 

Now, onwards, is good. If you will have to chop yours back to get them indoors for the winter, then those prunings would do.

 

Well done! B.sanguinea is said to be a bit of booger (but never tried myself). I have lots of root suckers which I'm thinking of separating next spring.
I was rather pleased to keep mine blooming until the beginning of July (they seem to respond to shade and moisture when the weather is warm) with no loss of colour as some (@strongylodon I think was one) suffered...................


I'm really happy to say that it is also loaded with buds again, so autumn should be good

 

Yours looks so green and a very deep green at that! How do you achieve this? Mine is pretty pale in comparison, I do feed it with tomato feed every 2 weeks or so.

 

I don't use tomato feed. This year I've been using food bought in Lidl - NPK is 15-10-15 but the thing that struck me when I picked it up was that the magnesium content was 2% (by way of comparison, MiracleGro is 0.5%). All my potted plants have looked much better this year.
It also grows under the apple and willow tree canopy over the summer.

 

Ermmm ... you sure? I had it in my head that Miracle Gro has no Magnesium at all (and thus Epsom Salts was needed for anything that needed any Magnesium issues [i.e. because not enough in the compost, or for anything permanently potted]).

I Googled the label:

http://www.lovethegarden.com/system/files/user-files/product/label/01-13/mg-ap-soluble-pf-label.pdf

Might be comparing Apples and Oranges though, perhaps you were meaning a different Miracle Gro product?

 

You're right - I've just been up to the shed and looked! It needed chucking anyway.
Maybe I was mixing it up with Phostrogen? Either way, I liked the idea when I read the label and have been happy enough with the results.

 

One of my seed grown ones - I like the colour.


On the right - Miss Emily Mackenzie. I couldn't get over the size of this. Its 20 inches from top to bottom and 9 inches across the mouth (ignoring the twiddly bits). The ones on the left are suaveolens for comparison.

 

Really like the first pic Peter.

I think brugs actually like this time of year best, mine always seem to anyway, but dont grow many.

 

What a cracker

Fed a lot? or any other tips to getting a deluge of flowers like that? (I think mine are good, but nothing like as good as that, but I don't give mine anything like the over-feeding regime that I think I should)

 

Not over fed Kristen just the occasional tom feed and some epsom salts occasionally.

I think with the first pic it might be down to variety.
Its Grand Marnier, it just seems to want to flower.

The second is Maya Variegata, its not done much all summer till now, but at least you get the foliage when not in flowers so that one always looks interesting.

 

Thanks ... good to hear I don't need to be obcessive

Indeed, one of the best Do Good'ers